


soaking wet

by kindheitstraum



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, F/M, First Meetings, no gambit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-14 19:45:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3423320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kindheitstraum/pseuds/kindheitstraum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: How Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak met under different circumstances or how Felicity made Oliver smile for the first time in a long time.</p><p>He was running his fingers through his hair when he looked up from his phone and saw her.<br/>She was standing a few feet away. There were wet strands of blonde hair out of the once high and neat ponytail. Her clothes were soaking wet...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How they met

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my very first Arrow fic. It is also my very first fic written in English. So a big thank you goes to Rushman2.0 on ff.net, who took time to check this for typos and grammar mistakes.  
> And also thank you, Luisa, for reading over it, while it was a mess (and now go binge-watch Arrow!)
> 
> So. This is kind of an AU thing-y where Oliver wasn’t on the Gambit with his father. And Robert’s death made Oliver take care of QC. Other than that the characters shouldn’t be too much OOC. And please tell me if they are. I really would like to know.  
> Plus. I wrote this because there is this song and every time I listen to it this scene pops up in my head. It’s called “A-N-N-A (Immer wenn es regnet)” by Max Herre. I know that probably no one will be able to understand a word he’s singing, but it’s still great to listen to. Make sure to check out the MTV Unplugged version, if you do want to give it a listen. This story is kind of inspired by the song’s first verse.
> 
> (And of course I don't own anything. If I did Olicity would be already married and Felicity would be pregnant with their second child.)

Oliver was running under the first roof he could find. It started pouring out of nowhere and his suit was ruined within a few seconds. He couldn’t go to his meeting looking like that and there was no way that he would find a free cab at this time of the day with this kind of a rain. And even if he did, he wouldn't have the time to go back to change and get to the meeting on time. So he texted his assistant to move the meeting to the afternoon and to send John Diggle, his driver and second best friend, to pick him up. 

He was running his fingers through his hair when he looked up from his phone and saw her.

She was standing a few feet away. There were wet strands of blonde hair out of the once high and neat ponytail. Her clothes were soaking wet, her rose blouse even seemed glued to her body and he couldn’t imagine that she could possibly be able to see anything through the glasses she was wearing. That didn’t seem to stop her from checking her tablet, which she held close to her body to keep it from getting wet as well. Oliver smiled when he saw the red pen she was chewing on between her pink lips. 

She must have noticed him staring and looked up to see who it was. Her eyes found his and she smiled a little before returning to check her tablet.

He didn’t know if he should approach her or not. He wanted to. But he didn’t want to seem like a creep. Not anymore. And thankfully he didn’t need to. She noticed that he kept staring at her and looked up again. 

“Hi,” she mumbled with a smile on her face and returned to checking her tablet.

“You know that you are going to destroy that thing if you don’t pack it away,” Oliver answered and got a few steps closer to her to keep his voice low. He didn’t want to get any unnecessary attention from anyone who could possibly have a camera handy. 

She smiled again before looking up a third time and pushing her glasses up her nose. “Thank you for your concern, but I don’t need to be told that, Mr. Queen.” 

Oliver raised an eyebrow, wondering if he met her before, while she seemed to notice her choice of words and a shocked expression replaced the amusement on her face.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like … You know. Like I’m in a position to tell you to do anything. Obviously, I’m not and probably won’t ever be. Not that I want to. I was just pointing out the fact that it is nearly impossible to be in a higher position than you. Professionally, I mean. It’s not like you are the King of England or something. Not that you couldn’t be. I mean you can’t. You are not a member of the royal family and -” She took a deep breath. “I’m babbling. And rambling. I’m sorry. I’m going to stop now.” She was blushing and held her tablet even closer, if that was possible.

Oliver was smirking. There was no way that they had met before. He would have remembered someone like her. “Do I know you, Miss …?”

She was blushing harder - if possible, before starting to apologize again. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Of course you don’t know who I am. Why should you? I’m Felicity. Felicity Smoak. I work in the IT department of your company, Queen Consolidated.”

He seriously needed to get out of his office more often. “I guess that is why you don’t need to be told that water destroys technology.” He nodded towards her tablet.

Her lips formed a small smile. “You could say that.” She packed her tablet into her bag, where it was probably the safest. The blonde smiled awkwardly when she noticed that Oliver kept staring at her. “So if you have any problem with your computers or anything, I’m your girl.” It took her a second to notice what she said. “I mean not your _girl_ girl, but your girl. I didn’t mean to make a pass at you. I didn’t. And I know that it sounds the same, but it meant something different in my head. Oh, gosh. I am babbling again. I am sorry. I’m sure you have better things to do than listen to me babble. I will stop in three, two, one.” Her face was nearly red when she stopped talking and Oliver could see that she was silently cursing herself.

He let out a genuine laugh, which happened rarely. “Don’t worry, Ms. Smoak,” Oliver assured her. “I don’t mind listening to you babble.”

Not knowing how to answer to that Felicity blushed harder and tried to look past Oliver for a free cab. She was late for work, didn’t have any coffee yet, because her car decided to break down the previous day and she totally forgot about it in the morning and started walking in hope to find a cab, before it started pouring, her clothes were soaking wet and she made a complete fool of herself in front of her _gorgeous_ boss, who was probably going to fire her as soon as he made it to the office.

“I promise, I’m not going to fire you, Ms. Smoak,” Oliver commented her thoughts and for a second, Felicity thought she was placed in a horribly written book and Oliver was able to read her mind. 

She closed her eyes when she realized that she really needed a mouth filter. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

“Possibly.”

Felicity’s skin color matched a tomato by that point. “I really am sorry, Mr. Queen. It’s been a weird day and it isn’t even 8 A.M. yet. As soon as I have coffee, I will come as close to a normal human being as I can. I promise.”

Oliver smiled as he nodded to John, who just arrived. “I can help with that.” He led her to the car and opened the back door for her. “Let me buy you a coffee.”

Felicity was speechless. “Mr. Queen, I-”

“Oliver, please,” he interrupted. 

“I don’t think that would be appropriate.”

“I insist.”

Felicity hesitated. “I’m late for work.”

Oliver looked like she just insulted him. “I believe, your boss gave you the morning off, Ms. Smoak.”

“It’s Felicity,” she sighed, giving up. _And actually being seriously nervous._

Oliver’s smile widened a little, when Felicity got in the car, and now, Oliver was actually thankful for the rain. Maybe stepping into his father’s footprints wasn’t such a bad thing. 

John Diggle had a knowing smile on his face, when he pulled the car back into the traffic and Felicity started babbling again. She was a keeper.


	2. coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Felicity was left speechless more than once or how Oliver couldn't stop smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the kudos and comments I’ve gotten. I am seriously blown away by it and had a smile on my face all week long. I am not used to getting this much positive feedback and I think I’ve fallen in love with AO3 and this fandom. Thank you so much!  
> And because some of you asked for it: The coffee date follow up. I don’t think I’ll continue this universe, because this was originally written as a OS and has no plot or anything planned for it. (Maybe one day the muse will find me and I’ll add other OS to these two. Who knows?) And besides, I even feel like this seems a little forced at first and I really could not get rid of that feeling without having every second word being “smile”. I hope you still like it! (Even though everyone here is totally OOC, because apparently I have no control over these characters.)  
> But if you have anything you want to read and want me to write it, just leave me a prompt on my “writing”-Tumblr (wordsiputtogether.tumblr.com). I will get to it as soon as I can. I just need to find a permanent beta first. Any volunteers? (I really need one for this multichapter fic I'm working on.) This isn’t beta’ed, by the way. So I’m really, really sorry for all the typos and grammar mistakes and everything. Just mention them somewhere and I’ll get rid of them.  
> And before I forget: Some of these lines are taken from Arrow itself. I didn’t highlight them, but they are there.
> 
> And again: I don’t own any of this. Certainly Felicity (spoiler alert) wouldn’t have slept with Ray, if I had done.

 

“I am so sorry for your car. Really, I think I destroyed the seats.”

Oliver chuckled. “I don’t think that some wet clothes will destroy my car seats, Felicity.”

“ _Leather_ car seats. And I am pretty sure that these seats cost more than my car. Which actually is no surprise, because I still own the car, I got in high school. But that’s not the point. I destroyed your seats!”

“You didn’t, Felicity. I promise”, he said and got out of the car to walk around it and open her door.

Felicity smiled, unable to answer in any other way. People usually were annoyed by her talking this much. But not Oliver. He was constantly smiling. And that made her smile. And talk even more.

“So what’s your order?” Oliver asked when they walked into the coffee shop a few streets away from the company. 

“You really don’t need to do this.” She avoided saying his name, because she was definitely _not_ comfortable using his first name.

“No discussions.”

“Then I’ll have a tall vanilla latte, please.”

Oliver nodded to his driver, who had followed them inside, and he walked over to the barista to give up their (or just her?) order.

“I’d ask you what you do for a living, but I think we covered that part,” Oliver started the conversation and sat across Felicity who just sat down somewhere in the back corner much to Oliver’s linking. This coffee shop was probably one of his employees’ favorite ones, being this close to the offices. 

“You mean the part of you being my boss and not firing me for some weird reason?”

“I don’t see a reason to fire you, Felicity. And besides, you seem like someone who could get her sweet cold revenge without getting caught.”

A wide smile appeared on Felicity’s face. “You’re right. And don’t forget that I am without a doubt the single most valuable member of your technical devision, including my _so called_ supervisor. Letting me go would be a major error for your company.”

Oliver tried to hide his amusement, but was nowhere near to being successful. “It’s a good thing that I’m not firing you then.”

“It is.” She pushed up her glasses, trying to avoid Oliver’s gaze. He was not taking his eyes off of her and she wasn’t sure that that was a good thing.

“So tell me something about yourself,” he suggested, leaning back in his seat, eyes fixed on her face.

“I grew up in Las Vegas, before leaving for college in Massachusetts. I graduated MIT in ’09 and came directly to QC after that. There’s nothing much to tell.”

“What about your family?”

She started playing with her fingers. “Only child.”

And Oliver wasn’t stupid. He realized that this was something she wasn't comfortable talking about, so he dropped it and came to the question he wanted to ask her since their eyes met.

“What about relationships? Do you have someone special in your life?”

Her eyes widened. “Are you asking me if I have a boyfriend?” Felicity blurted out before she could stop herself.

Oliver didn't know where the sudden self-confidence came from (he seemed to have lost it for a while after Felicity smiled to him for the first time under the roof), but it was there and he was definitely going to make use of it. “Well, you aren’t engaged or married.” He nodded towards her hands, where there was no ring to see.

“You know that not every engaged or married person likes to wear rings?”

Oliver sat up properly in his seat, not being prepared for this answer.

“It is not nice of you to assume that I don’t have those relationship statuses because I don’t wear a ring.”

John came to their table with three cups of coffee and took the seat next to Oliver, but he didn't even notice.

“So you are married?”

Felicity couldn’t keep her straight face straight anymore and was bursting out in laughter. “I’m just messing with you. I am actually single,” she admitted before turning to John. “Thank you.”

Instead of answering, he gave her a small smile before taking a sip of his coffee. 

“What about you?” Felicity wondered, wrapping up her mug with her hands. “Still dating Laurel Lance or are you two currently off? It is really hard to keep track of your relationship.” 

“I follow him around all the time and even I can’t figure it out, Felicity,” John cut it, taking her side. He just talked to her a few minutes in the car, but she already had a small place in his heart. He knew why Oliver went after his instinct by inviting her for coffee. Tommy would love hearing about this.

Oliver raised an eyebrow, looking back and forth from John to Felicity, trying to decide, whom to answer first, when his choice fell on her. “Just because I invited you for coffee, it doesn’t mean that you can talk to me like that. I am your boss. Your comment was really inappropriate.”

Felicity’s eyes widened in shock. But it took her just a second to phrase an apology in her head and she was about to grab her purse and the tablet she took out seconds after they sat down, when John punched Oliver on his arm. 

“Hey!”

Already standing on her feet, Felicity was more confused after that, but she didn’t want to push her luck. Just because her boss didn’t fire her for that comment yet, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to. So she started babbling again. Because that was obviously going to help. “I am so sorry, Mr. Queen. I didn’t realize that- I mean I should have known that- Actually, I couldn’t have known that you would react that way. It was you who started flirting with me and then inviting me for coffee. If John wasn’t here, this would feel a lot like a date. Which it obviously isn’t, because you are you and I am me and there is no way that you would ask me out on a date. But that’s not the point. You made me feel comfortable enough to talk like that without it being on accident. And I know that probably it isn’t smart to talk you like this, but we already established that I can get my _sweet cold revenge_ , as you put it into words, without having it traced back to me. And let’s not forget that I am the person, keeping your IT department together. So yes, maybe I overstepped a line, but it was _your_ fault.” She took a moment to breathe before she wanted to leave, because she had talked as if a pause would’ve meant the end of humanity. That was when she realized that Oliver was shaking of laughter and John was trying not to look amused. 

She gave the two men a wary look. “Why are you laughing?”

“I was just messing with you, Felicity,” Oliver led out when he calmed down a little. “You can call me Oliver,” he offered again as she sat down, while being shocked for the second time within a few minutes. “And I would love to go on a date with you. Are you free Friday evening?”

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

Oliver chucked. “No,” he answered, trying to calm her down and took her right hand into his. “I just would love to spend some time with you. Preferably alone. And somewhere, where I don’t have to worry about people with smartphones.” He let go of her hand, giving her an apologizing smile and she understood. It wasn’t that he was with her, but that he was trying avoid press altogether. 

“Thank you. It is flattering, but I really don’t think that it would be appropriate. You’re still my boss and -”

“I’ll pick you up at six thirty.”

Felicity turned to John for support and realized that he was gone. She was sure Oliver said something while she wasn’t paying attention.

“You don’t have my address.”

“I’ll try the one on your personnel file. And don’t try to change it. Digg has already called my EA to print it out - just to be safe.”

“You know that that’s misuse of information.”

Oliver smirked and repeated his words. “I’ll pick you up at six thirty. Or do you prefer sometime later?”

Felicity sighed, giving up again. “Six thirty should be fine.”

“Perfect.” He stood up, offering her a hand and walked closely next to her when they met John right outside the coffee shop, who had two To-Go cups for them in a hand. They decided to walk to the company since it wasn’t far away and talked about everything that came to their minds.

When they reached QC, they agreed on having lunch together, because Felicity was dying to know more about John’s nephew and wanted to see more pictures and Oliver couldn’t wait to learn more about Felicity.

“You know, Oliver,”, John began as he pressed the button of the elevator, “I think you need to replace you car seats. I don’t think rainwater suits them.”

Felicity laughed out loud. “I would pay for it,” she said, “but my boss doesn’t pay very good so I can’t afford it.”

And just then the elevator arrived and the doors opened. She stepped inside, mentioned something of being exited for seeing him Friday evening and left a speechless Oliver standing in front of her, while the doors closed and John couldn’t help himself and a broad smile found its way to his lips.


End file.
